The family of a disabled woman allegedly murdered in Mexico by her much older lawyer boyfriend are demanding answers - and have pointed to a number of discrepancies in his story.

Tamra Turpin, 36, from Union, Missouri, was found dead on Wednesday in her hotel room in the luxury Playa del Carmen resort near Cancun. Her death first ascribed to an overdose of prescription medication.

After an initial autopsy revealed she had been strangled, 59-year-old John Loveless was arrested by Mexican police as he attempted to board a flight to Atlanta.

Loveless, an attorney specializing in personal injury, remains in custody in Mexico and is being questioned by authorities about Turpin's death.

Now Turpin's sister, Jodi Turpin Mills, 43, has told Daily Mail Online the facts she has just 'don't add up'.

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Traveling: Jodi Turpin Mills said her sister Tamra and her boyfriend John Loveless had been on vacation repeatedly over the past year. She said they appeared happy together

Dramatic: This is the moment John Loveless was held as he was about to board a flight from Cancun to Atlanta, after the death of his girlfriend, Tamra Turpin

Questions: Jodi Turpin says she wants John loveless to explain exactly what happened the evening before her sister's death, when he contacted her saying she was acting erratically, and on the day her body was found

Mills also questioned the sequence of events given to her by Loveless and disclosed that the couple had argued on the night before her sister's death.

The family also raised concerns over reports that Turpin had overdosed on prescription medication, telling Daily Mail Online that although she had attempted suicide once before, she was 'very happy' in the run up to last week's events.

'She did attempt suicide once but she said afterwards that she would never do something like that again,' said Mills, of Mexico, Missouri.

'I can't say that she would never have tried something like that again but she had been so happy, so loved. I think she had more friends than she ever realized.'

Mills said the first inkling she had that something was wrong came the night before Turpin's death, when Loveless called to say she was acting erratically.

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'He sent me a text saying "you have to call me now" and when I did, he said she had been acting crazy,' Mills disclosed.

'He told me they had been arguing, and that she had got very upset and had taken a lot of pills. I think they had been drinking.

'He told me he was taking her to hospital, so I told him to look after her and to tell me what happened.'

The next morning, Mills received a further call from Loveless, this time to say Turpin was 'acting funny' and had had a series of seizures.

'I said he should take her to hospital again and he said he would. I asked to talk to her as well but he said she didn't want to.

'Forty-five minutes later, he called me back and said she was OK and was lying in bed, resting comfortably.'

Business as usual: John Loveless' law offices said they were continuing to work despite the attorney being held in Mexico

Deserted: John Loveless' home (left) and Tamra Turpin (right) in Union, Missouri. Her family say they want answers

Her next contact with Loveless came at 3.49 that afternoon, when the 59-year-old informed her of her sister's death in a text message.

'I thought it must have been a typo, the autocorrect doing something funny or something like that,' added Mills.

'I tried to call him back but he didn't pick up. I kept calling and eventually we spoke. I remember talking to him briefly, and she said she was gone. After that, I don't know what the rest of our conversation was.'

Loveless and Turpin are thought to have known each other for around four years before becoming romantically involved 12 months ago.

Turpin, who was left with chronic joint pain and migraines following a car accident at the age of 16, was unable to work full time but did pose nude for art classes at a local university and, says her sister, was 'proud of her body'.

'She was a very strong personality,' says Mills. 'She was fun-loving, she had a band that she liked to follow and go and see.

'Tamra loved summer time. Boating, floating and riding motorbikes. She went to a lot of fundraising events too and she loved her pets – they were like her babies.'

Now Mills says she has been left 'numb' by her sister's death but is angry at the lack of official information – and at the surprise development that Loveless was allowed to request a second autopsy on Turpin's body.

'Right now, we're waiting to hear the results,' she said. 'It was done at her boyfriend's request. I don't know why he was allowed to do that.'

Loveless, who is divorced with two adult sons, is currently being held in Cancun, where he briefly appeared before a judge on Friday.

Happy: Tamra Turpin's sister said the 36-year-old was happy with her new boyfriend. 'He has a property by the river and he invited us all there for a party last summer. 'We went boating and he seemed nice.'

Remembered: 'She was a very strong personality,' Jodi Turpin Mills said. 'She was fun-loving, she had a band that she liked to follow and go and see. Tamra loved summer time. Boating, floating and riding motorbikes.'